As football fans know only too well, the NFL preseason is usually littered with banged-up bodies and serious injuries, and this year has been no exception.

Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman has a career-threatening knee injury. New Redskins defensive end Jason Taylor sprained his knee on Saturday night and is out 10-14 days. Oakland suffered two season-ending injuries on Saturday to fullback Oren O'Neal and receiver Drew Carter. And Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora, the sacks leader for the Super Bowl champs, is out for the year with his own knee injury.

The news about Umenyiora is bound to have both local fans and scribes up in arms again about the evils of the preseason, and they'll continue to raise their collective voice that the exhibition season should be shortened, or banned entirely -- even if Umenyiora's injury was a freak one, the kind of slip that could've happened in Week 1 or Week 16.

But don't expect the preseason to be touched. It's a cash cow for league owners, who force season-ticket holders to shell out bucks for the preseason games if they want in on the regular season. There's been some chatter by the players' association about shortening the exhibition schedule by a game, but unless it can come up with a plan to recoup the lost revenue for the owners -- i.e., a 17-game regular season -- don't expect it to happen anytime soon.

But there's another reason why tinkering with the preseason slate is doubtful. And that reason is that it's a bad idea.

Whether you want to believe it or not, NFL coaches need exhibition contests to sift through the 100-plus bodies they have at the start of the summer. Players can't be tested in training camp or in controlled scrimmages. Coaches need to see what players can do in game situations, and -- unfortunately -- there's no substitute for that. And even for those players who are locks to make the team, they need to work on timing ... and, once again, you need to do that in a preseason GAME, going up against opposing players and not teammates in practice jerseys in camp.

But perhaps the biggest reason why four preseason games are probably the right amount is that anything less and you're gambling on having more -- and more serious -- injuries occur at the start of the regular season. If players haven't faced enough game-condition challenges heading into the regular season, you'll have a slew of sprains, strains and pulls at the outset ... or worse.

For those younger fans complaining about the length of the preseason, believe it or not, it was worse. Up until the 1978 season, the NFL had a SIX-game preseason and a 14-game regular season. I agree that was a bit much and a change was needed.

But anything less now and you might be asking for more trouble than just a handful of unfortunate injuries like the one suffered by Umenyiora. 